In a substrate processing system of this kind, the operation authority to the user (e.g., an operator, a maintenance engineer, and a process engineer) of the substrate processing apparatus is set respectively in the substrate processing apparatus or in the management device. Conventionally, in the case of setting the operation authority in a plurality of substrate processing apparatus, the information (operation authority information) regarding the operation authority is input via an operation device provided to each substrate processing apparatus, or the operation authority information, which has once been set, is stored in an external storage medium, and then copied to each substrate processing apparatus via the storage medium. On the contrary, in the case of setting the operation authority on the management device, the operation authority information is input to the management device.
Here, the operation authority is for setting a limit on an available function of the management device or the substrate processing apparatus (operation device) for each user with the purpose of preventing erroneous operations and so on. Further, the operation authority information denotes the information indicative of what functions are provided to each user, or what operation right is set to each user with respect to each of the substrate processing apparatus and the management device regarding each of these functions.